Tuesday's Word: civil war
civil war* n : a war between opposing groups of citizens of the same country
Civil war is what the Bush Administration claims is not taking place in Iraq between the ca 60% Shia group and the somewhat 15% Sunni tribe from whence Saddam Hussein comes. The 20% Kurds are trying to become autonomous.**
This week's Word was suggested by "Jaguar" Bob Gregory.
*Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary
**Paul Sullivan, History News Network and GlobalSecurity.org.
posted by Yoga Korunta | 00:01
7 Comments:
Good word. Civil war is what we have. If the people of Canada have problems living together what can we expect from a war torn developing country? What are the other 5% of the population?
The sources did not elaborate on the remaining 5%.
What of Canada? It's a wonderful country!
The point was the French Canadians have tried "peacefully" to leave the country several times, "make their own country", because of cultural differences and cultural identity. Forget the points listed below:
1 - Canada being one of the better countries in the world to live in
2 - The whole country needs to learn French
3 - Everything is posted in both French and English
3 - most of the recent PMs have been from Quebec - political power and influence
Why would the French Canadians want to leave, not be a part, of a country like this? What valid complaints can the French Canadians have? Political and/or religion persecution? Political disenfranchisement? Economic or cultural discimination?
Now apply this ideas to a country such as Iraq - These groups of people have very valid reasons to want to make their own country.
Some additonal data to add to the debate - I personally think of Canada as the 51st state.
The Turkomans, who are believed to constitute somewhat less than 2 percent of the population, are village dwellers in the northeast living along the border between the Kurdish and Arab regions. A number of Turkomans live in the city of Irbil. The Turkomans, who speak a Turkish dialect, have preserved their language but are no longer tribally organized. Most are Sunnis who were brought in by the Ottomans to repel tribal raids. These early Turkomans were settled at the entrances of the valleys that gave access to the Kurdish areas. This historic pacification role has led to strained relations with the Kurds. By 1986 the Turkomans numbered somewhere around 222,000 and were being rapidly assimilated into the general population.
The Assyrians are considered to be the third largest ethnic minority in Iraq. Although official Iraqi statistics do not refer to them as an ethnic group, they are believed to represent about 133,000 persons or less than 1 percent of the population. Descendants of ancient Mesopotamian peoples, they speak Aramaic. The Assyrians live mainly in the major cities and in the rural areas of northeastern Iraq where they tend to be professionals and businessmen or independent farmers. They are Christians, belonging to one of four churches: the Chaldean (Uniate), Nestorian, Jacobite or Syrian Orthodox, and the Syrian Catholic.
Although the data are not absolutely reliable, the government estimates that 76 percent of the people are Arab; 19 percent are Kurds; while Turkomans, Assyrians, Armenians, and other relatively small groups make up the rest. All but a small percentage adhere to Islam. The Islamic component is split into two main sects, Sunni and Shia, with the Shias by far the majority. Officially the government sets the number of Shias at 55 percent. In the 1980s knowledgeable observers began to question this figure, regarding it as low. Because the government does not encourage birth control and the Shias, the least affluent in society, have traditionally had the highest birthrate, a more reasonable estimate of their numbers would seem to be between 60 and 65 percent. All but a few of the estimated 3,088,000 Kurds are Sunni, and thus the Sunni Arabs--who historically have been the dominant religious and ethnic group-- constitute a decided minority vis-รก-vis the Shia majority
information takenm from Country Studies, Federal Research Division, Library of Congress
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/iqtoc.html
Thank you for the info. I know little of the French Canadian struggle but am generally supportive of independence movements. Surely they can have some manner of self rule and yet remain part of Canada for the benefit of all. An observation of life is that the political aspirations of a few bad apples can make an entire group seem unpleasant. At present, the peaceful Muslims are suffering for the Little Napoleon Mullahs. Most Americans don't have chips on their shoulders or share Bush's delusion of fundamentalist domination. He is a coward who wouldn't say "Boo" to a mouse if not for the U.S. military. Religion is the platform of intolerance.
Are you an American citizen? By the way you write, you are certainly not a Murkan!
talking about "mukan".
The Constitutional 'Murkan
(With Apologies to Monty Python)
The Scene: A pleasant, bucolic afternoon in a quiet, wooded, suburban idyll. A MAN and A WOMAN are weeding their garden in the lazy afternoon sun. GEORGE WALKER BUSH comes walking up the street, accompanied by his faithful flunky COLIN.
GWB: Hey you!
MAN: What?!?
GWB: You there in the dirt [points to gated house up the street] What CEO lives in that house there?
MAN: I have a name, you know
GWB: Well, I couldn't just say "Who lives in that house?"
MAN: You could call me "Dennis"
GWB: I didn't know you were called "Dennis"
MAN: You didn't even bother to find out, did you? What I object to most you automatically treating me like an inferior.
GWB: Well, I am King!
MAN: King, eh? Very nice! And how'd you get to be King? By perverting the system and fooling the masses with your nonsense about being "comfortable in your own skin?" By running to the courts when you didn't get your way? By using outdated ...
WOMAN: Dennis, there's some pernicious clumps of dandilions down here. Oh! How are you?
GWB: Just fine, my dear lady. I am George, King of the 'Murkans. Whose gated compound is that?
WOMAN: King of the who?
GWB: The 'Murkans.
WOMAN: Who are the 'Murkans?
GWB: Well, we all are, and I am your King.
WOMAN: I didn't know we had a King, I thought we were a constitutional democracy.
MAN: You're fooling yourself. We live in a plutocratic dictatorship, a self-perpetuating autocracy in which the masses ...
WOMAN: Oh, there you go, bringing classism and democracy into it again.
MAN: That's what it's all about.
GWB: Guys, whatever! I am in a hurry. What CEO lives in that house so that I may personally give him his tax break?
MAN: No one lives there.
GWB: Who is your CEO then?
MAN: We don't have a CEO!
GWB: [looks puzzled] Yes?
MAN: We told you, we're a constitutional representative democracy with a President and a Congress elected by the People ...
GWB: [getting impatient] Alright, I see
MAN: in an election every two years, in the case of Congress and every four years, in the case of the President, unless there's a tie, in which case the Congress decides the issue ...
GWB: I order you to SHUT YOUR MOUTH!
WOMAN: Order, just who does this guy think he is?
GWB: Say what!?! I am your King!
WOMAN: Well, I didn't vote for you.
GWB: You don't vote for kings.
WOMAN: Then how did you become King?
GWB: [looks reverently into the middle distance as a The Mormon Tabernacle Choir sings]
Sir Tony of the Fat, ... his agenda hidden by the greatest of hypocrisy, held the Constitution in abeyance and decreed that by Divine Providence (and a creative interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment) that I, George, was to carry the Project for a New American Century forward and that is why I am your King!
[singing stops]
MAN: Look, midnight Supreme Court mental gymnastics and morons in judicial robes handing out the keys to the White House are no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the People, not from some washed-up Federalist Society hack!
GWB: Shut up!
MAN: You can't expect to wield supreme executive power just because some right-wing idiot on the Supreme Court threw the Constitution out the window and appointed you to be King!
GWB: Shut up!
MAN: I mean, if I went around telling everyone that I got to be King or President or whatever just because some ideological Neanderthal with a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court and not accountable to the voters decreed that I was King, they'd throw me in the loony bin!
GWB: [grabs MAN by the collar] Shut up, I am telling you!
MAN: Ah, now we see the violence inherent in the wingnuts when they don't get their way!
[OTHER AMERICANS begin gathering around from houses up and down the street.]
MAN: Help! Help! I am being repressed! My rights are being violated! Help me!
GWB: [looks around, throws MAN back down to the garden] Stupid peasant!
GWB then stomps off disgustedly down the street, muttering about "limousine liberals" who are "destroying America" as COLIN follows obediently behind.
Outstanding, anon, thank you!
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